


dad instincts

by yesitsalsoagun



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Dad Reaper | Gabriel Reyes, Gen, Redeemed (?) Gabriel, gabe doesnt know how to be a bad guy apparently, gabe loves his sons and all these other dumb kids too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 06:15:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14302617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yesitsalsoagun/pseuds/yesitsalsoagun
Summary: Maybe it starts slow.





	dad instincts

**Author's Note:**

> so i wrote this uhhhhhh october of 2016 so its a lil outdated but im still proud of it ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

Maybe it starts slow.

 

Maybe Reaper’s on the battlefield fighting against Overwatch and he sees McCree take a hit that’s got be painful and  _fatal_  and all of him just clenches as the cowboy gets to cover and only relaxes when he hears the  _shing_  of Angela’s wings signalling that support has arrived. 

 

That isn’t supposed to happen.

 

Or maybe he’s fighting against them again and sees Genji fall off of a rooftop. His heart sinks and he manages to wraith over in time to give him a gentle landing.

 

That isn’t supposed to happen either.

 

Maybe it escalates from there. He makes risky decision after risky decision for these people–these  _kids_ –that shouldn’t even be on the battlefield, shouldn’t be fighting for this. The first time he saves D.Va from falling to her death after her mech explodes he freezes because  _what is he doing_? He’s back at Talon the following day trying to explain it to himself. Genji and McCree he could blame on muscle memory, but this? This he can’t explain.

 

Maybe Overwatch recovers him. Maybe he’s hostile to everyone at first because these people  _abandoned him_. 

 

Maybe he nearly leaves when Soldier 76 comes back to Overwatch. He’s so furious because he supposed he could work with these kids to make sure they don’t get themselves killed but  _Jack_? Jack is the one who  _left him to die_ _,_ Reaper is not going to work with him.

 

But maybe they exchange views on what happened the night the Swiss base exploded. Maybe they don’t quite add up. Maybe everyone does some digging and they find out what really happened that night.

 

Maybe Reaper decides to stay.

 

And even though he tried to avoid her, anytime he’s alone in the vicinity with Angela she’s on the verge of tears and  _apologizing_  and he’s still angry but he merely growls,  _There’s nothing we can do about it now._

 

_Maybe there is_ , she offers one day when he’s in her lab. He freezes.

 

She offers to try and rebuild his body. It’s risky, but she believes she can do it.

 

Why the hell not, he thinks. At best, he stops being in pain every moment of the day, at worst he becomes even more messed up than he already is–is that even possible?–or he gets the death that he’s been craving for years.

 

They go through with it, and god if it isn’t the worst pain he’s ever felt–but maybe, by some miracle, it works.

 

He can’t ghost anymore or teleport and he runs into door frames more often than he’d like to admit, but…the pain is gone. It’s gone, just… _gone_.

 

Maybe he starts to smile and laugh again. Maybe he and Reinhardt tell stories again. Maybe he gets that dramatic flair that he had before his death back. Maybe he gets back into sewing. (He’ll be damned if he lets McCree run around in that serape with so many holes in it) 

 

Maybe Gabriel Reyes is happy again.


End file.
